Character information and OOC contact
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Character Information
General
Canon Source: Naruto
Canon Format: manga and anime (primarily manga, but the anime doesn’t change much, fillers aside)
Character's Name:Kisame Hoshigaki
Character's Age: 32
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take?
An wristband, that is about as wide as the screen on an iphone touch. The material is supple, covered with designs and waterproof in any function. Kisame can access the various functions via touching the designs (In short, rather like a summoning scroll or a really strange touch-screen). The wristband can be rotated so the very thin screen and tiny camera/holoprojector can be on either side of the arm and if he wishes Kisame can detach the mike and speaker to wear as an earpiece for when he’s on the move. There’s no keypad but there is a stylus--any text communication will need to be hand written on the screen. When he’s not using it, it just looks like a weird wristband, and when he’s accessing a function the screen, stylus and etc will slide out of it, but only the earpiece and stylus are completely detachable.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Kisame is a trained ninja and has all the basic ninja skills at his command. He can be assumed to be proficient with a number of weapons, including swords of all types, shuriken, kunai and an unrevealed weapon with chains in one instance. He also is a very skilled martial artist (given a score of 4.5/5) and excels in both armed and unarmed combat--but he is clearly the most skilled with a sword. Like most ninja, he is capable of using his chakra for skills such as standing/walking on water and gripping vertical and even inverted surfaces among other similar skills. He is very fast for a person his size (4/5) and also intelligent and perceptive. All of this makes him a very deadly opponent in a fight.
Genjutsu (illusions) are his weakest skill, but he is almost certainly able to perform the most basic ones--not that he’ll ever bother--and is likely able to defend himself against low and standard level genjutsu.
He is an excellent swimmer, shown to move very swiftly and effortlessly through water. He has two sets of gills, one on his cheeks and another on his shoulders and there is no reason to assume they aren’t functional--though without fusing with Samehada they are insufficient to let him stay under indefinitely.
Where Kisame truly excels is in physical strength, amount of chakra, and stamina. He is able to wield a greatsword one handed without any visible effort and overpower other strong ninja easily. He’s also strong enough to break chakra reinforced restraints that are designed to put the prisoner in a position with little leverage. In addition he has great stamina (5/5) and chakra to rival even the ninja with the most chakra. It’s commented several times in the manga how massive his chakra is (even 30% of his total chakra is compared to Naruto’s chakra and Naruto is also repeatedly stated to have immense chakra) and he is even called a “bijuu without a tail”. It is safe to say that his natural chakra reserves are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, of any character in the series.
Kisame is able to make use of his massive chakra for various ninjutsu techniques. His elemental affinity is water, and he’s also capable of using some earth jutsu. He can make use of water around him, but even in a dry environment he can use jutsu to create his own lake--a technique rarely seen used by others because of the amount of chakra it requires. He often shapes his water jutsu into sharks, and is capable of summoning actual sharks too (though, he’ll be unable to in Siren’s Pull). A list of the jutsu he’s seen using is below, though he’s almost certainly capable of using any water jutsu in the series.
Earth Release: Underground Submarine Voyage
Water Clone
Water Prison
Water Prison Shark Dance (while fused with Samehada)
Water Release: A Thousand Feeding Sharks
Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave
Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave
Water Release: Five Feeding Sharks
Water Release: Thousand Feeding Sharks
Water Release: Water Shark Missile
Water Release: Great Shark Missile (absorbs the chakra of the opponent’s attack)
He also is able to fuse partially or completely with his sword, Samehada. Partial fusions allow him to quickly heal even very serious wounds and replenish chakra by absorbing the chakra that Samehada has absorbed from enemies. A fusion isn’t necessarily required to absorb chakra through Samehada, as he can do it just from being in contact with the sword. With his own immense strength and chakra and his ability to replenish himself with the chakra of his enemies, Kisame is able to outlast most enemies and says that the stronger his opponent, the stronger he becomes and that he does not tire.
A full fusion transforms him into a shark-like monster capable of staying under water indefinitely and also of sensing chakra. While in the fully fused form he can again absorb chakra with just a touch and his already excellent swimming skills increase by leaps and bounds.
He can also go inside Samehada safely in order to hide from enemies. His chakra and Samehada’s are identical, so this technique is nearly impossible to detect. He uses this as a spying technique but it isn’t without drawbacks. After being inside Samehada for a time, he will emerge looking thin and weakened.
In addition, Kisame is able to absorb chakra directly from others, though this requires him to be in a water source and also in contact with the victim’s chakra.
Weapons: Samehada
Samehada is a semi-sentient greatsword, over six feet in length and very heavy. The blade itself is not an actual blade but is composed of smaller scales that resemble shark-skin or teeth. Therefore it does not cut but instead shaves off portions of the victim. Samehada is capable of moving on its own, and scuttles around on spikes. It has a gaping mouth and if someone who it does not like touches it, it can shoot out spikes from any part in order to injure that person. It has two appearances, one in which the mouth is hidden and it remains stiff like a more-normal blade and a second in which the scales are splayed out, the mouth is apparent, and it moves fluidly, almost snake-like.
Samehada chooses its wielder and feeds off their chakra, as well as the chakra of the wielder's opponents. It is capable of sensing chakra and returning some of the chakra it has absorbed to wielders. Its ability to absorb chakra allows it to stop jutsu, by absorbing the chakra in the attack, and also to keep victims unconscious by reducing their chakra levels to an extremely low state. Samehada is more energetic when full of chakra and it is capable of becoming attached to chakra it has fed off of.
Samehada will be joining Kisame in Siren’s Pull, but their relationship will be initially strained because Samehada betrayed him in order to keep Killer Bee’s chakra available for consumption (apparently it is the most delicious ever, or something) and struggled with divided loyalties up until the point where they are being pulled from. Without Killer Bee present, Samehada will remain loyal to Kisame but this will change should Killer Bee ever arrive in Siren’s Pull.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Not much is known about Kisame’s youth. It is heavily implied that he has had his shark-like appearance since birth and it is known he graduated from Mist’s academy at the age of ten. Given his age in comparison to Zabuza, he definitely had to fight a classmate to the death in order to graduate. Because of the reason for the brutal exam and also a statement he makes later about not wanting his squad to be friendly with him, it is likely that the classmate he was forced to kill was at least on friendly terms with Kisame, if not a true friend.
Kisame was slated for the elite Seven Swordsmen after graduation and placed as a subordinate to the former wielder of Samehada who worked with Mist’s intelligence division. This time period was during the Third Great Ninja War, and though Mist doesn’t appear to have been directly involved, Kisame was shown fighting Konoha ninja. As he was assigned to be a bodyguard for an intelligence squad alone and from the illustrations appears to have been in his teens, he probably rose in rank quite quickly and was definitely considered very strong. He was under orders from his superior to protect the information the squad carried first and the squad second. In other words, not to allow any chance of capture. He did not mix with the squads he guarded, and in fact told them not to try to be friendly with him. At at least one point, his squad was ambushed by a large number of Konoha ninja. Rather than risk their capture by the opposing forces, Kisame killed his entire squad and was somehow able to escape and return to Mist, himself.
It was revealed that his superior had actually been leaking information to Konoha, which at the least, rendered Kisame’s actions to protect Mist’s secrets worthless. Given the circumstances, the superior could have been using Kisame’s actions as a way to hide the information leak, or had been intending to make him a scapegoat at a later time, but this isn’t directly said. When Kisame discovered his superior’s treachery he killed the man. Even though Kisame’s superior was the wielder of Samehada at the time, Kisame was still able to overpower him and take the greatsword for himself. Kisame was then approached by the Fourth Mizukage with praise for Kisame’s actions and a directive that Kisame would be serving him directly.
Kisame responded in an untrusting way and after a conversation, Uchiha Madara revealed himself as the person controlling the Fourth Mizukage and told Kisame about his plans for the world, and how he wished to remake the world into a “world of truth.” Somehow, he earned Kisame’s unwavering trust at this point and Kisame has served him faithfully ever since.
In between this time period and his next appearance, we know Kisame defected from Mist sometime after the age of 22 but before age 24. His defection happened after he assassinated a daimyo and attempted to overthrow the government (presumably Mist’s). His next chronological appearance occurs when he and Itachi become partners. They both traded threats, and Kisame described himself as terrible, a good-for-nothing, and compared both of them to cannibalistic sharks that devour their siblings before birth. Itachi countered that they weren’t monsters and that a person can’t know their true character until right before they die. Kisame mentioned that they should try to get along at this point and years later, they obviously do.
They traveled to Konoha in order to try to capture Naruto, and both acted as checks and balances to the other. Itachi’s warnings and commands curbed Kisame’s violent nature and attention getting attacks and Kisame cautioned Itachi in turn against overusing his eye-techniques. They fought briefly against several Konoha ninja, including Gai who kicked Kisame in the face, before Itachi ordered a retreat. They later tracked down Naruto and Jiraiya and Kisame was able to neutralize Naruto with Samehada before Sasuke interrupted them. Kisame didn’t interfere with Sasuke and Itachi and neither did he really question why Itachi doesn’t just kill Sasuke right then. Unfortunately, from their point of view, Jiraiya was able to arrive and force them to retreat.
Kisame isn’t seen again until nearly three years later. He volunteered to be used to slow down the Konoha ninja in order to complete the extraction and sealing of ichibi. While he didn’t go himself, a stand-in with 30% of his chakra and his personality ended up fighting Gai and his team. Gai not remembering Kisame really annoyed him and he spent most of the battle taunting Gai before getting defeated and being revealed as a fake. The real Kisame commented that it was a shame that he wasn’t able to go himself.
Kisame was then sent to find and capture the yonbi, which he succeeded in doing. He had asked Itachi to do it without aid and later described what a difficult opponent the man was but only said he was “a bit tired” after the fight. Other Akatsuki members are revealed to have died, and Kisame expressed a wish to have seen how it went (getting scolded for not being respectful) and when it’s mentioned that Sasuke killed Orochimaru, Kisame said Itachi must be proud.
Later, when it appears that Sasuke has been killed, Kisame expressed confusion over Itachi’s reaction to the news and was rebutted for it. Not long after that Sasuke came after Itachi and Kisame willingly stood guard so that their fight was not interrupted by anyone.
Kisame is not shown mourning Itachi, but after Itachi’s death Madara revealed himself to Kisame and Kisame was very pleased and said he can move more freely. He was sent on a mission to capture hachibi, but in truth it was a spying mission. Though Kisame couldn’t resist fighting Killer Bee with all his strength, in the middle of the fight he hid inside Samehada and it was a clone made by Zetsu that eventually lost the fight. Kisame spent all his time taking down information on Lightning country until he was eventually found out and had to flee because spying while in Samehada drastically weakened him.
He first drained Killer Bee’s chakra through Samehada, and then another ninja’s on his own before heading towards the sea. Gai was able to follow and had to use his strongest techniques to match even a weakened and swordless Kisame. Kisame made the mistake of assuming one of Gai’s attacks was chakra-based and used a jutsu designed to absorb chakra instead of defending. He was hit full on but the ‘instant kill’ attack only badly injured him. He was captured and restrained but managed to resist the interrogation jutsu by biting his tongue and then broke free of the restraints. Knowing he was too weak to escape Kisame summoned sharks to eat him to protect the information he carried and succeeded.
Point in Canon: Chapter 508, after his suicide
Before this point, Kisame had lost his partner of almost seven years and re-discovered the man he’d sworn his loyalty to. He was given the mission of “capturing” the hachibi vessel, Killer Bee, but this was actually a ruse to insert him as a spy. He intentionally threw the fight by hiding inside Samehada and allowing himself to be replaced by a nearly powerless clone. He spied on Bee and Cloud for some time until his presence inside Samehada was discovered by Naruto due to his negative emotions. He made his escape and left Samehada, draining chakra from Killer Bee and another ninja in the process. He confronted Gai and a tactical error left him grievously wounded and captured. He was able to break free of both the interrogation and the restraints and then chose to commit suicide in order to protect the information he had about Akatsuki.
Character Personality:
The first thing most people notice about Kisame is that he’s really violent. Kisame loves the thrill of battle and is always up for any kind of fight, be it a fight to the death or a simple spar. He wants to fight anyone and everyone, just for the fun of it, but he is capable of curbing his violent impulses when he needs to. He just rarely thinks he needs to unless a partner or superior is bringing it up. He doesn’t feel any remorse for killing or maiming but he does have great respect for strong opponents. When Itachi implies that the yonbi is a fragile old man, Kisame takes the time to detail just how strong the man was and he seems pleased while doing it. He also isn’t arrogant about his own skills. He readily acknowledges that some are stronger than him (Itachi, Jiraiya, Madara, Gai at the end) but that doesn’t mean he won’t fight them.
The second surface quality he shows frequently to others is the fact that his speech is actually quite polite. Even when he talks about killing someone in a fight, he’s pretty polite in the way he says it. Of course, the less he likes someone, the less polite he’ll be, but even then, few get past the stage of insulting nicknames. Kisame addresses people he respects and/or doesn’t dislike fairly formally and younger people usually with ‘kid’ or ‘brat.’ People he dislikes for some reason get insulting nicknames like the variations on weirdo and weird beast for Gai, or ‘zombie twins’ for Hidan and Kakuzu. Throughout all of his speech, even with the people he quite respects and likes, he always remains just a little distant. He’s never truly friendly and casual with anyone at all.
The third surface quality, is that he is usually smiling. Kisame presents a facade of a good natured and easily amused but really violent person. How much is a facade only he actually knows, but his smiles far outnumber his serious or angry/annoyed moments as an adult. However, Kisame was far more serious and subdued when he was younger so it definitely is partly a facade.
In addition to this, Kisame likes to be remembered and acknowledged. He almost always introduces himself, even to opponents he’s intending to kill, and the one person who consistently fails to remember who he is or that they’ve fought before really, really annoys him. He actually spends a whole fight trying to get the man to remember and getting progressively more annoyed when he doesn’t.
That’s what most people will see and get to know about Kisame. The super violent, usually polite and almost always grinning ninja. But that’s not all there is to Kisame. The rest of him is hidden below the surface, and he doesn’t trust anyone enough to reveal all of it.
Most of the hidden qualities revolve around the fact that Kisame, until the moment of his death, really did believe himself to be nothing more than a monster. He’s not a stupid man, and realizes that killing your own comrades, even for a mission, really isn’t right. But he’s done this repeatedly since the tender age of ten and he doesn’t really feel much remorse over it. There is a very small amount there, but it’s buried very deep and only even began to emerge at one point right after he killed his own superior. Most of the time it’s buried well enough that Kisame himself can’t recognize it as remorse. It’s a point of inner conflict to him that he’s never entirely gotten over.
Kisame survived in the climate of Mist by pushing people away. Never once does he show friendliness or care in his younger days, and he rebuffed any friendly advances made towards him. Not making any friends allowed Kisame to be able to see his comrades as things rather than people, which made killing them much easier. Unfortunately for Kisame, it also meant he was alone and isolated. Because of this, Kisame never gained the ability to emphasize or sympathize with others, and always remains at a distance. He can crack a joke at a comrade’s death rather than mourn because he’s always seen things like comrades and allies in solely intellectual terms. He’s never had a truly emotional connection to anyone, and wouldn’t know what to do with one if he ever started forming a connection.
Additionally, Kisame doesn’t trust well. Discovering slowly that everything he thought was true or trusted in was nothing but lies broke his trust in himself and in anything else. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to trust, just that in most cases he doesn’t, even close allies. Even his trust in Madara is colored by the fact that Madara is offering him exactly the thing that he so desperately wants, and probably also needs. Until he makes his decision to die willingly for the cause, it’s a very selfish kind of trust.
There are some minor exceptions. For example, while he isn’t friends with Itachi, there is some trust and maybe a little bit of fledgling, stunted care in their relationship. Kisame does trust Itachi’s judgment in many things, especially battle. He also cares enough to want to keep Itachi healthy--cautioning him about overusing his damaging techniques--when, if there wasn’t something a little more than just being forced to work together there, he could just move on to the next partner when Itachi got too ill with no trouble. It’s not even close to friendship, and Kisame doesn’t trust Itachi entirely but there’s something there.
Another thing that Kisame keeps hidden is that he actually doesn’t really like lies very much. He’s capable of dealing with them very well, and not trusting most people allows him not to be hurt in any way by them under usual circumstances, but he doesn’t enjoy them. Part of his secret, deepest desire is for a world where lies aren’t necessary but he’s well aware he has to continue to use and expect them. This is the part of himself that he likes the least and dislikes the most consciously. He would abandon those lies in a minute if he thought he could, but he can’t.
The bigger part of his secret desire, though, is actually for a place he really, truly belongs. In his biggest moment of crisis, he asks himself “Where do I go? Where can I go?” and he’s aware that he hasn’t fit in in Mist, and doesn’t entirely fit in with Akatsuki either. Part and parcel with belonging is the idea of no lies or half-truths being necessary and also that trust and real camaraderie will be present. In other words, those things he is most lacking in (trust, friendship, and freedom from lies) are the very things he most desires, in some cases so deeply buried that he probably isn’t consciously aware of them.
In many ways, Kisame has been fairly selfish his entire life. He pushed people away in Mist so he wouldn’t be hurt by broken friendships, and abandoned Mist in order to follow Madara and Madara’s promise of a world of truth that would exactly fulfill his deepest desires. Even his usual violent behavior is solely to satiate his impulses. He is, in part, aware of this, so it’s telling when he says he’s “not so terrible after all” right before he kills himself to prevent information from falling into enemy hands. Part of this, of course, goes back to his deeply held idea that information is more important than lives, but another part of his sacrifice is that he’s aware that he’s doing it to help Madara succeed. He’s also aware that Madara’s plan is to remake the whole world, and firmly believes that it will be the world of truth that he’s so desperately desired. He had a choice to either fight and try to escape--risking death or capture--or to kill himself. On one hand, if he lived he could see the world he was hoping for. On another, living and being captured endangered that world. On the third, if he died he would never get to see it for himself. In the end, he chose to die to protect that information and give all he could to help bring about that world in what was the closest he’s ever come to a selfless act.